Authors found that 'vegetable' and 'dairy product' patterns were associated with lower morality from cardiovascular disease, while the 'animal food' pattern was not associated with mortality from cardiovascular disease among Japanese.

Methods

At baseline (1988–1990), 26,598 men and 37,439 women aged 40–79 years enrolled in the Japan Collaborative Cohort (JACC) Study.

During the follow–up through 2003, 578 men and 499 women died from stroke, and 272 men and 207 women died from coronary heart disease.

Authors identified three major dietary patterns, ‘vegetable’, ‘animal food’ and ‘dairy product’, by factor analysis for both sexes.

The multivariable hazard ratio (HR) and 95% confidence intervals of mortality from total cardiovascular disease in the highest versus lowest quintiles of the vegetable pattern were 0.93 (0.78–1.13), p for trend=0.73 for men and 0.82 (0.67–1.00), p for trend=0.04 for women.

Results

The respective HRs of mortality from stroke in the highest versus lowest quintiles of the dairy product pattern were 0.65 (0.49–0.86), p for trend=0.01 for men and 0.70 (0.51–0.97), p for trend=0.02 for women, and those of total cardiovascular disease were 0.89 (0.74–1.08), p for trend=0.23 for men and 0.76 (0.61–0.94), p for trend=0.01 for women.

The animal food pattern was not associated with mortality from stroke, coronary heart disease or total cardiovascular disease for either sex.